The concept of passive restraint safety belts and harness for automobiles has an origin reaching back at least to the work of David Oppenheim in U.S. Pat. No. 2,858,144 and Charles E. West in U.S. Pat. No. 2,919,140. The passive restraint concept originated in the desire to provide a safety restraining harness which would self-actuate as a consequence of normal entry of the user to the vehicle and exit therefrom and without the necessity for manual adjustment of the webbing or belting and without the manipulation of links, levers, fasteners, buckles or the like. The desirability of passive restraint safety harness is in the desire to provide improved user protection and avoid human error or the error of choice. In brief, if the user is left with no choice, the passive restraint harness provides protection. On leaving the vehicle, the user should be freed from the encumbrance of the safety belt or webbing without any manipulations beyond those normal to leaving the vehicle. The door of the car has been extensively exploited as an aid to deployment and to removal of harness as the user enters and quits the vehicle. There have been a substantial number of attempts to achieve an optimum system of minimum interference with the entry and exit habits of drivers and front seat passengers for vehicles. Some of these are seen in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,219,361 to Robert H. Brown; 3,411,602 to Robert E. Royce (including shoulder harness); 3,679,229 to Willem J. Weststrate; 4,029,339 to Yuishiro Kaneko, et al; and 4,084,841 to Toshiaki Hayashi, et al.
The present invention provides a substantial improvement over known prior work in providing a combination lap and chest passive restraint harness of great simplicity, with better deployment and retraction, and with comfort and optimum use of existing standard door construction. Great economy can be realized by using a single retractor at a strategic location on the inboard side of the user and achieving deployment across the chest and lap from the retractor to points adjacent the hip and outboard buttock of the user and above the outboard shoulder of the user and without requiring manipulation. The present harness system lifts on the lap portion as the door is opened and as the door swings outwardly on its forward hinges and free from seat obstruction. This results in ample room for freedom of ingress and egress. The track for the lift is face mounted on the door and emergency stressing is felt, not by the track, but by the anchor points on the door. While ideally suited to bucket seats, the system is also applicable to bench type seats.